Europe

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In 524 BC, a group of pirates set sail for Sifnos, an ancient Greek island famed for its vast gold and silver mines.

The mines of Sifnos were unparalleled in the ancient world.

They produced so much gold and silver that the local government at Sifnos could erect countless monuments, invest in new public works, and still easily have a substantial balance remaining at the end of each year to distribute to the citizens.

There’s a lot to be worried about going into 2017 both in terms of financial markets and in terms of geopolitical concerns.

Productivity decline most since 1993? ... no Problem - Buy the Fucking Bankrupt Bank dip...

The day started off with Italian authorities telling BMPS to prepare for a state bailout, which enabled this total farce...

Events were breaking yesterday, but as Bloomberg's Richard Breslow mocks, not nearly as quickly as the narrative that tried valiantly to explain the price action.

After the fact. We all know what happened. The Italian referendum sent the euro and risk into the sewer in the hours following the result.

A few days ago we wrote an article asking how stable the world's democracies really were and noted the opinion of at least one Harvard historian who saw extreme risk related to the global wave of anti-establishment sentiment (see "How Stable Are The World's Democracies? - 'Warning Signs Are Flashing Red'").  Apparently Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, agrees that the political upheaval from Brexit to Trump to the collapse of the Italian government on Sunday signal the most dangerous time for Western democracies in decades.